On Feb. 6, I called a Republican aide on Capitol Hill with a question: Did Hagel’s Senate critics know of controversial groups that he had addressed?

Hagel was in hot water for alleged hostility to Israel. So, I asked my source, had Hagel given a speech to, say, the “Junior League of Hezbollah, in France”? And: What about “Friends of Hamas”?

The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East, that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically. No one could take seriously the idea that organizations with those names existed — let alone that a former senator would speak to them.

Friedman wasn’t counting on the incredibly obsessed Breitbrats, for whom journalism is a retreating speck in the rear view mirror.

How do you imagine Ben Shapiro will react to the news that his bombshell exclusive story was a ludicrous fraud?

By raging at Friedman and calling him a “hack” and a member of the “Obama media,” of course! In the right wing universe, no mistakes are ever acknowledged, even when everyone can see the egg all over your face.

Oh really, well my source says that Ben Shapiro is cynical charlatan who doesn’t care how ridiculous he looks in the eyes of his peers, as long as the checks keep clearing.

Ben, maybe this works for now (I’m sure you’ve got a family to feed)… but eventually, I recommend you try actual journalism. You know, the kind where you ask the question “Is this actually true?” then you try to answer that question honestly and in good faith. Radical, I know. And not much money in it. But you’d be doing a good thing. Does that appeal to you? Probably not, right?

[…]

Wasn’t too long ago that Breitbart was parading little Ben out as the new braintrust, after letting him loose on the lamestream media to take on big phonies like Piers Morgan. Lol, that house of cards collapsed pretty swiftly.

[…]

I’m pleased to see how many commenters are beating up on Shapiro. I’m having fun too.

But we all need to remember that “facts and truth” isn’t the goal of Breitbart articles. If a lie serves their ideology then lie they will.

Few on the right will hold Shapiro in less regard for his dishonesty, they might hold him in less regard though because he wasn’t clever enough to hide it.

[…]

The ability to mock someone in real time while they double down on their stupidity has to be one of the greatest benefits of the internet. Right, Manti Shapiro?

[…]

It’s always been obvious that Shapiro isn’t a journalist, now it’s clear he’s an inept blogger.

[…]

As long as Shapiro is the Editor on this site, it will never gain credibility.

What effect will this have on breitbart.com’s credibility among right wingers? None. It’s not about credibility to the right, it’s about smearing their opponents with everything they can find, true or not, accurate or not.

It’s very possible that some Republican staffer deliberately pushed this fake story out to Ben Shapiro and breitbart.com, because they knew the brats have no standards and would immediately run with it. Then they could use it as a source for their attacks on Hagel.

On Thursday, Senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively that they have been informed that one of the reasons that President Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has not turned over requested documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called “Friends of Hamas.”

Here he is on February 20:

Our Senate source denies that Friedman is the source of this information. “I have received this information from three separate sources, none of whom was Friedman,” the source said.

How did multiple “Senate sources” become “our Senate source”? The industry standard for any story is two sources—you run with one, you might just be repeating a rumor. If only one source is spreading this story, and Shapiro gives him further anonymity to say he has “three sources,” why shouldn’t the reader assume that the source is lying to cover his flank?

I still think it’s very possible that some Republican staffer deliberately pushed this fake story out to Breitbart.com, because they knew the brats have no standards and would immediately run with it. Then they could use it as a source for their attacks on Hagel.

Andrew breitbart secretly founded Friends of Hamas and his vast hidden estate has funded worldwide operations since under the direction of blogger Charles Johnson. Johnson enrolled people he was certain in his mind would want to be identified with such a great organization intended to manipulate conspiracies not yet invented.

GOODBYECOLUMBUS
“But if Friends of Hamas is really a “myth,” why does it have a website at FriendsofHamas.com?
Now, admittedly, I made the website this morning. But I’m not saying that Friends of Hamas definitely exists. I’m just asking questions! Why does this website, which I made, exist, if Friends of Hamas doesn’t exist?”-Max Read

Shapiro’s retconning the story even though it’s been out there for how long?

Let me reiterate that if this was done at any other media outlet - like say the NYT, WaPo, NBC News, or even CBS, Shapiro would be hauled before his bosses and canned for pushing a poorly sourced (or non-sourced) story that has no basis in reality.

Now, in attempting to cover himself (in inglorious basterdy), he’s retconning and diverting attention from his poorly sourced story that still has no basis in fact, despite other outlets and muckrakers attempting to uncover Hagel’s supposed perfidy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, before we so casually discard the idea of Friends of Hamas, I ask you to consider this.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense! Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, then the Friends of Hamas must exist.

Well, regardless of the facts, the fact remains that Hagel has not definitively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has stopped taking donations from Friends of Hamas, a group that may or may not exist. ///

Is the Obama administration preparing to give prisoners at Guantanamo Bay GI Bill benefits as part of a plan to “completely crush their souls with bureaucracy?” Wired Magazine reports that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office asked the Pentagon that very question after a constituent sounded the alarm.

The problem? That far-fetched notion came from a story on the satirical site “The Duffel Blog,” a military-focused answer to The Onion. (Wired posted the constituent’s letter and the query from McConnell’s office on its top-notch “Danger Room” blog on national security).

It caught fire on the right in no time. “That is quite the accusation,” wrote Moe Lane at RedState. “All they have to do to debunk it is to have Hagel reveal his foreign donors.” In the National Review, Andrew Stiles reported that “rumors abound on Capitol Hill that a full disclosure of Hagel’s professional ties would reveal financial relationships with a number of ‘unsavory’ groups, including one purportedly called ‘Friends of Hamas.’” Arutz Sheva and Algemeiner, conservative pro-Israel news organizations, ran versions of the story based 100 percent on links to the Shapiro original. On February 7, radio host Hugh Hewitt interviewed Sen. Rand Paul about the Hagel nomination and pushed him on the “Friends of Hamas” story.

HH: Let me bring up one piece of information that Ben Shapiro at Breitbart put out today, which is one of the foreign funders behind Senator Hagel that he has not yet disclosed formally is something called Friends Of Hamas. If that is in fact true, Senator, would that lead you to vote against Mr. Hagel?

RP: You know, I saw that information today, also, and that is more and more concerning. With each day, there are new things coming out.

Paul has since come out against cloture on the nomination. Mike Huckabee, on tour in Israel last week, got asked about “Friends of Hamas” at a press conference. “If it proves true the rumors of Chuck Hagel’s having received funds from Friends of Hamas,” said the 2008 presidential candidate and current Fox News host, “if that’s true then on its face that would disqualify him.” On Fox Business, Lou Dobbs interviewed National Review columnist Andrew McCarthy about the Hagel quandary, and “Friends of Hamas” came up again.

MCCARTHY: There was a report that came out last week—not confirmed yet, but we’re [i.e., the White House] also not denying it very vigorously—that one of the groups behind the speeches may have been an outfit called Friends of Hamas. That is not going to—

Congress has enacted legislation that treats Jerusalem as the capital of Israel since the 1990s and calls for moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Each President since its enactment has deferred the decision - stating that the final status of Jerusalem is to be determined between the parties.

That’s the official stance on Jerusalem and it hasn’t changed. GOPers like Rubio want to make hay of things, but unless Israel and the PA cut a peace deal, nothing is going to change and the US isn’t going to move the embassy.

In fact, by percentage of total population of crewmen wearing their respective colors, the blue science and medical officers have it safest, only losing 5.1% of their population. Redshirts have it the next best, with an even 10%, and it’s the yellow shirts of command and helm crew who top out at losing 13.4% of their population over the course of the series. Barsalou can break it down even further: only a portion of red shirted crewmen are actually security personell, the specific population of crewmembers who suffered the worst casualties at 20%. But Barsalou takes it a step further:

Congress has enacted legislation that treats Jerusalem as the capital of Israel since the 1990s and calls for moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Each President since its enactment has deferred the decision - stating that the final status of Jerusalem is to be determined between the parties.

That’s the official stance on Jerusalem and it hasn’t changed. GOPers like Rubio want to make hay of things, but unless Israel and the PA cut a peace deal, nothing is going to change and the US isn’t going to move the embassy.

SS/DD

I know. It’s just so strange in how these kinds of statements come out of the blue. I would understand if Rubio was from Israel or Jewish. Seems like obvious pandering.

Speaking of red shirts I just finished John Scalzi’s novel of that name.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org…]

I thought it was pretty pedestrian for the most part. At least partially redeemed by the last 40-50 pages which I think had the best writing and work in it. But you do have to wade through the first part in order for the rest of it to make sense.

In a column published in 2003, Shapiro explicitly endorsed the idea of forcibly expelling the Palestinians from the West Bank. This was the position of the extremist Meir Kahane, who was banned by the Israeli Supreme Court from participating in Israeli politics because of his racist views. Here is an excerpt from one of Shapiro’s columns, entitled “Transfer is Not a Dirty Word,” which, to the best of my knowledge, he has never renounced, not that it would matter particularly much:

The Jews don’t realize that expelling a hostile population is a commonly used and generally effective way of preventing violent entanglements. There are no gas chambers here. It’s not genocide; it’s transfer. It’s not Hitler; it’s Churchill.

After World War II, Poland was recreated by the Allied Powers. In doing so, the Allies sliced off a chunk of Germany and extended Poland west to the Oder-Neisse line. Anywhere from 3.5 million to 9 million Germans were forcibly expelled from the new Polish territory and relocated in Germany.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was pleased with the result. In 1944, he had explained to the House of Commons that “expulsion is the method which, so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble … a clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by the prospect of the disentanglement of populations, nor even by these large transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions than they ever were before.” Churchill was right. The Germans accepted the new border, and decades of conflict between Poles and Germans ended.

Arab-Jewish conflict is exponentially more volatile than German-Polish conflict ever was. And the solution is far easier. If there was “room in Germany for the German populations of East Prussia and of the other territories,” as Churchill stated, there is certainly room in the spacious Muslim states of the Middle East for 5 million Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. If Germans, who had a centuries-old connection to the newly created Polish territory, could be expelled, then surely Palestinians, whose claim to Judea, Samaria and Gaza is dubious at best, can be expelled.

It’s time to stop being squeamish. Jews are not Nazis. Transfer is not genocide. And anything else isn’t a solution.

Well, regardless of the facts, the fact remains that Hagel has not definitively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has stopped taking donations from Friends of Hamas, a group that may or may not exist. ///

More to the point, not only was Kahane banned from Israeli politics, but his political parties/successors Kach and Kahane Chai were banned from Israeli politics.

Israel has made an effort to cleanse itself of these kinds of extreme views (pushing for transfers, forced relocations, etc.) but they do come up - particularly from the most radical groups within the settler movement. But they make up such a small segment of the Israeli polity that it bears repeating that the Israeli electorate doesn’t tolerate those views, nor does the Israeli courts.

Shapiro has argued that Jews who support Barack Obama (the majority of American Jews, in other words) are, in essence, self-haters and “Jews in name only.” But Shapiro is the one who seems completely divorced from Jewish values. His leadership role in the dump-Hagel movement reflects well on Barack Obama.
— Jeffrey Goldberg

Shapiro has argued that Jews who support Barack Obama (the majority of American Jews, in other words) are, in essence, self-haters and “Jews in name only.” But Shapiro is the one who seems completely divorced from Jewish values. His leadership role in the dump-Hagel movement reflects well on Barack Obama.
— Jeffrey Goldberg

Heh. What a complete white washing of the Germany-Poland-Russia border decision. No context of what that border move was based on. No context on how that border (and Poland’s existence) has been moving around for 400 or so years. And no context on the fact that Churchill as an English politician really doesn’t care too much about a bunch of Germans being displaced. In fact, part of being pleased about it might be that in future it would be something to keep Germany and Russia from being friendly.

Shapiro has argued that Jews who support Barack Obama (the majority of American Jews, in other words) are, in essence, self-haters and “Jews in name only.” But Shapiro is the one who seems completely divorced from Jewish values. His leadership role in the dump-Hagel movement reflects well on Barack Obama.
— Jeffrey Goldberg

Seems like he has a problem with most Jews then. Outsider’s perspective here but I always hate it when someone deems one group “not really a {group name here} because they support {name here}. It goes with what Jeffrey Goldberg is saying about Shapiro’s fascist worldview though.

Seems like he has a problem with most Jews then. Outsider’s perspective here but I always hate it when someone deems one group “not really a {group name here} because they support {name here}. It goes with what Jeffrey Goldberg is saying about Shapiro’s fascist worldview though.

That’s a great question. One that can only be answered with SHUT UP LIBTARD. Okay smart assery aside, I really don’t know. I mean its namesake wasn’t exactly the most honest and credible guy. Lest we forget that it was him that created James O’Keefe who we now know is a liar and likes to try to bug senators offices and of course Shirley Sherrod whose career he tried to ruin.

Isn’t this different than the No True Scotsman fallacy? I always think of NTS when say something like a right wing nutcase goes on a shooting spree and the other right wingers claim NO HE WAS REALLY A LEFT WINGER despite all evidence to the contrary.

At this point, how many supposed news outlets are actually credible, especially right-wing nuthouses? Everybody with a few brain cells to rub together knows Fox News is full of shit. I think most of them have completely forsaken credibility for the almighty page-hit and/or viewer. It’s enterNewstainment where people can go and get biased news because that’s what they want. Those people don’t just want to hear something bad happened, they want to hear something bad happened and how it’s all Obama’s fault.

At this point, how many supposed news outlets are actually credible, especially right-wing nuthouses? Everybody with a few brain cells to rub together knows Fox News is full of shit. I think most of them have completely forsaken credibility for the almighty page-hit and/or viewer. It’s enterNewstainment where people can go and get biased news because that’s what they want. Those people don’t just want to hear something bad happened, they want to hear something bad happened and how it’s all Obama’s fault.

A good case in point to that is Benghazi. The wingnuts seem to care more about blaming Obama for that than finding who was responsible for that tragedy.

Isn’t this different than the No True Scotsman fallacy? I always think of NTS when say something like a right wing nutcase goes on a shooting spree and the other right wingers claim NO HE WAS REALLY A LEFT WINGER despite all evidence to the contrary.

Eh, depends how you look at it. He’s Jewish, and what Goldberg said

“Shapiro has argued that Jews who support Barack Obama (the majority of American Jews, in other words) are, in essence, self-haters and “Jews in name only.”

Pastors Kevin Swanson and Dave Buehner of Generations Radio are no strangers to using harsh and inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric, and so it came as no surprise that in their latest radio show Swanson claimed that homosexuality is “destructive to the family, to sexuality, to life itself and it destroys civilizations.”

During his introduction of an ex-gay activist named Brian, Swanson claimed that homosexuality is part of “the curse of God [that] has come down upon our land” and is like a “high-tension bear trap that grabs onto young men and young women.”

Is Swanson the same freaking moron who said that taking the birth control pill implants thousands of dead babies in a woman’s uterus?

I…have a pretty sick sense of humor and I’ll look for a joke in anything because that’s how I get through life without beating the shit out of somebody…but I just can’t on that one. What in the blue fuck.

Someone who is comfortable in their own skin and with their sexuality wouldn’t act the way they do.

I just keep thinking these guys are just horribly repressed gays who were brought up in a religious community that detested, despised, and humiliated them. They’re so afraid of themselves, about being outed, that they just lash out.

Or, it’s the usual “eww, butt-sechs” types who are also terrified of lady-parts.

Trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. Does Mitt really think he can be renominated in 2016? Maybe is inner-starlet has come out and he’s now addicted to being on the front page of magazines?

Although he now blames President Obama for the draconian spending cuts set to take effect March 1, just days before it passed House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) characterized the so-called sequester to Republicans as a way to hold the president accountable.

A PowerPoint presentation that Boehner sent to his conference on July 31, 2011, reported by TPM at the time and resurfaced by The Daily Beast’s John Avlon, cast the sequester and the rest of the deal in favorable terms. The seven-slide PowerPoint was titled “Two-Step Approach To Hold President Obama Accountable” and the final slide made the case for sequestration.

Within two days, the Budget Control Act — a debt limit hike, a wave of nearly $1 trillion in spending cuts, and the sequester — was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed into law by Obama. “When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted,” Boehner told CBS News at the time. “I’m pretty happy.”

Trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. Does Mitt really think he can be renominated in 2016? Maybe is inner-starlet has come out and he’s now addicted to being on the front page of magazines?

Trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. Does Mitt really think he can be renominated in 2016? Maybe is inner-starlet has come out and he’s now addicted to being on the front page of magazines?

Hard to imagine he could really put himself and his family through a third primary season. My guess is that it is just about image rehabilitation at this point.

Trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. Does Mitt really think he can be renominated in 2016? Maybe is inner-starlet has come out and he’s now addicted to being on the front page of magazines?

Dick Morris told him to keep going, because once he pulls ahead in the polls, Obama is going to have a hard time catching back up.

Trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. Does Mitt really think he can be renominated in 2016? Maybe is inner-starlet has come out and he’s now addicted to being on the front page of magazines?

I don’t get it either. Especially with his kind of wealth. Kick back, enjoy your family and the rest of your life, start a foundation if you get bored.

And if you’re the CPAC organizers, why? The GOP spent a good portion of 2011 trying to find someone other than this guy to run.

Trying to figure out why he would do such a thing. Does Mitt really think he can be renominated in 2016? Maybe is inner-starlet has come out and he’s now addicted to being on the front page of magazines?

Here are just some of the All Stars he’ll be competing with for the coveted “Douche of the Year” award.

Featured Panels Include: “The Liberty Movement and Its Role in the Conservative Movement,” “Benghazi and Its Aftermath: U.S. Middle Eastern and Southwest Asia Policy,” “The Fight for Religious Liberty: 40 Years After Roe v. Wade,” “The Right View…and the Real Issues,” “Has Atlas Shrugged? Business in America,” “CSI Washington, D.C.: November 2012 Autopsy,” “Back to the Future: High Tech—High Touch—Cool Tools,” and “In the Beginning: First Principles.”

Of course, the best image rehabilitation he could would be to come on stage at CPAC and blame everyone there for costing him the election by being a bunch of complete assholes.

Probably. I was wondering if in defeat, Mitt may return to Moderate Mitt now that he doesn’t have any pressure to kiss right wing ass. I doubt that’s what this speech is going to be. I expect it to be whiny knowing the speaker.

World Wrestling Entertainment’s product may be considered PG nowadays, but a pair of major characters showing xenophobic and racist attitudes toward the company’s Latino champion have caused a wave of criticism from conservative pundits accusing the company of attacking the Tea Party.

And that brings the total of GOP senators who fathered children outside of marriage who voted for Clinton’s impeachment to two. And that’s not even including Henry Hyde, Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, and the cabal of hypocrites in the House of Reps.

He’s only the president-elect? Are they waiting to count the electoral votes or something?

He has to give his Heritage Foundation inaugural speech where he promises to be an as big joke to the HF as he was to the US Senate. Of course, the HF was doing a good job with that before they chose him as their new president.

Yet we are apparently made in God’s image. No wonder I’m a non-believer. Any god I’d believe in wouldn’t be such a close-minded hateful prick.

Frank Says (fr. “Dumb All Over”):

“Hey, we can’t really be dumb if we’re just following god’s orders
Well let’s get serious, god knows what he’s doin’
He wrote this book here and the book says, “He made us all to be just like him”
So, if we’re dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side.”

The entirety of the lyric to that particular song, written in the ’80s, is as harshly true today as it was then. (I’d recommend the other God Trilogy songs from You Are What You Is, as well: “Heavenly Bank Account” and “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” , which the Persuasions did beautifully on their LP of Zappa songs.)

What would timeless songs like “New York, New York,” “Lady Is A Tramp,” and “Fly Me To The Moon,” sound like cranked out of Marshall stacks, crooned by members of Cheap Trick, Twisted Sister, Deep Purple, Anthrax, Mr. Big, or Queensrÿche ? This can now be experienced on SIN-atra, a brand new album to be released by Eagle Rock Entertainment on March 29, 2011.

PETERSON: At this point, I am concerned about doing the right thing. I have a certain amount of peace about that, and I will let the chips fall where they may. It’s only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal. I thought it was important to engage the issue now, and when we do it, do it right, and that there’s some perspective from the people I represent in that. I know there are other Republicans who are very interested in supporting same-sex marriage.

Petersen explained that his father-in-law has been in a same-sex relationship for 20 years, and he doesn’t want the issue to divide the state the way it has divided his family. He does have a few amendments he wants to propose to the bill, but none seem to weaken its guarantee of equality. Among his concerns is making sure religious leaders can choose not to wed same-sex couples, a provision that most same-sex marriage bills have included. He also wants to make sure the kids in same-sex marriages have the same financial guarantees in the event of a divorce as the children of opposite-sex couples.

I…have a pretty sick sense of humor and I’ll look for a joke in anything because that’s how I get through life without beating the shit out of somebody…but I just can’t on that one. What in the blue fuck.

If you like the sound of wrong, may I interest you in Pat Boone’s In a Metal Mood, or Paul Anka’s Black Hole Sun?

Haha I just found the Anka- Black Hole Sun. This is so wrong. I have to admit though that I like hearing weird covers. I like seeing a different foreign language take on it too. I have a Japanese version of My Back Pages for example.

Double heh — Celine Dion doing Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish”. (The spectacle of a very white Canadian singing “looking back on when I was a little nappy-headed boy….” is beyond absurd — but it actually was part of her Vegas show!)

Disinformation 101: conservative pundits and politicians take turns making crap up and then proceed to cite each other (“There are stories out there that blah, blah, blah occurred/was said/etc.”) as justification for propagating the fallacious stories.

This is what happens when your primary sources of “factual” information are the online blogosphere, local supermarket rags, or in some instances, purely hypothetical scenarios presented by members of the news media in the form of “what if?” queries. Anyone can tell anyone anything about anything — it doesn’t make it necessarily true.

Unfortunately, the dissemination of nonsensical rumors and inflammatory innuendo is a trademark of most conservative shock jocks, right wing bloggers, and the fine journalism observed at media outlets owned by News Corp.